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Name That Tune

It’s early on a weekday morning and here I am working away with a pitch pipe in one hand and a hymnal in another. My desk is littered with music—hymnals and other songbooks (going back to the 1970s Sing and Rejoice), children’s albums, and even a few CDs.

It’s time once again to choose Vacation Bible School music at MennoMedia.

Have I mentioned before that I love my job? Yep, this is one of the seriously fun parts of it.

Before I know it, it’s time to log into a Skype call and talk about the possibilities.

We have a new marketing team member and when he learns that we’re going to actually sing in this call, he seems a bit concerned. Really?!

I admit that I was initially a bit skeptical as well. While I love music, I do not consider myself to be a gifted musician or a singer. Yes, I took piano lessons as a child. The lessons taught me how to read music, but that was eons ago and I do not own a piano now. (The pitch pipe has to suffice.) Yes, I sang in my high school choir (shout out to Iowa Mennonite School) but it was a small school and lots of us did (read: were strongly encouraged by our parents to do so). And yes, I enjoy singing in church, but I don’t consider myself to be one to handily find the harmony and join right in. I prefer to stand near a strong alto and follow along.

Here’s the recipe that we at MennoMedia use to choose music for our children’s curricula:

Assemble a team of writers. Our children’s materials are written by contract writers from across Canada and the U.S. Right now we are working on music for 2015 VBS materials. (2014 materials are available for sale here.) Managing Editor Mary Ann Weber ably coordinates our VBS materials and assembles the writing teams. The 2015 team hails from Ohio Mennonite Conference, and they met together over a weekend in November to outline the sessions. They discussed how to tell the stories, what crafts and games might be included, and gave suggestions for music to go along with the theme.

Review the first round of suggestions: Mary Ann culls together music suggestions from the writers, adds some more of her own, and invites a small team from within MennoMedia to review the music. This is when staff shut the door or find a quiet spot and sing or hum songs to themselves in order to learn them. Does a song work for kids? Is it “sing-a-long-able”? Does it work theologically with the VBS theme? In the phone meetings we often hear things like, “I don’t think this song is right, but it reminds me of another song that goes like this …” And then the person talking shares a song on the phone. (We use the phone or Skype because our staff is dispersed. For this morning’s VBS meeting we were participating in Virginia, Indiana, and Ohio.) “Oh yes, I’ve heard that one before” is often said by another person, who then joins in the song.

Think about balance: It’s always important to think about balance in assembling a CD of songs. With VBS materials, congregations expect peppy songs. But it’s also good to have a song in a minor key or a slower song to provide some relief. It’s good to have songs that will appeal to the youngest children as well as the oldest. It’s good to have songs in languages other than English. It’s good to have songs that describe God in a variety of ways. It’s good to have old favorites and brand new songs as well. It’s good to make sure you don’t have the same song two years in a row. Trust me, it takes time to try and get the right balance.

Hire a CD coordinator: We at MennoMedia determine the music, then we hire someone to produce the CD for us. Typically this is someone from one of our churches. We listen to rough cuts and give feedback or request changes. We might make suggestions for certain instruments or to have children sing a certain song, but mostly we allow the musicians to do their work—knowing we’ve done ours in singing to each other on the phone.

What’s your ideal VBS song? What songs can you remember from VBS or Sunday school as a child?